


We Need a Little Christmas

by Joylee



Category: Stargate Universe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 19:52:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/601468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joylee/pseuds/Joylee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On Destiny Christmas spirit is found in unexpected places</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Need a Little Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [misura](https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/gifts).



> Set roughly between “Faith” and “Human” in Season 1, I played a little fast and loose with the development of Brody's still, but hey, those scenes in “Sabotage” could have just been him working on improvements, right?

In the interest of the 'new found Spirit of Cooperation', that Young was promoting, he had begun scheduling regular meetings with Camile and Rush. These were inevitably held over breakfast. That being the only time of day he could be sure of prying Rush away from his work without the other man raising a fuss.

It helped that for the regular weekly meeting Becker had taken to brewing up a pot of what he and Young called tea. Camile and Rush, both apparently appalled at the idea of labeling the beverage as 'tea', had debated several minutes the first time they tried it and came up with 'Eden Bark tisane' as a better name.

This promptly got shortened to Ebark by the rest of the crew, much to Becker's annoyance.

But it was hot, tasted faintly of something like cinnamon and many people found it mildly stimulating, even though TJ swore there was nothing in it even remotely like caffeine.

Rush completed updating the other two on the repairs and research the science team were conducting this week. Which left it Camile's turn. She looked uncomfortable. “Okay, I've got two issues which are more or less related. With Christmas coming up, Chloe is bound and determined to have a party. And about half the crew has already approached me about scheduling visits home via the communications stones for the holiday. How should I handle this? Homeworld Command has a strict 'completely sectarian' policy about holiday observances.”

“Which everyone pretty much ignores.” Young put in. “Can we punt this? Let Chloe have her party, but insist that she call it a 'mid winter' celebration or something?”

“Do we actually need to?” Rush put in. “When this came up last year on Icarus, the consensus among the non-Christian members of the science team was that as long as it wasn't an actual religious service they were happy to come for drinks and food regardless of what it was called. With Caine no longer with us, I can't imagine anyone's going to raise a fuss about having a bible reading.”

“Caine did that?” Young asked.

“He did.” Camile grinned. “And filed a complaint when his department head told him to, and I quote, 'G' yer head oot of yer arse, it's jest an excuse to g' drunk fer fucks sake'.”

“It was a _party_!” Rush contended. “It had nothing to do with any sort of religious observance. And I did apologize for cursing at him.”

“Only after I told you to.” Camile pointed out. “But the apology was very nicely done. I'm pretty sure he even thought you meant it.”

Young sipped his tea to hide a smirk. These meetings were proving to be surprisingly entertaining. “So, we tell Chloe that she has to check with everyone, but if no one minds she can have her Christmas party and call it anything she likes? What's the problem with the stones.”

“Timing.” Camile told him. “I've got at least 52 people who want to at be able to call home for Christmas and only two days to do it in. _And_ I can't schedule them to use the stones during times when their families are asleep so I actually only have about 32 hours to book them in and that's assuming we include all day Christmas Eve.”

“You can schedule the Asians and Europeans while the Americans are sleeping.” Rush put in.

“Already thought of that. All of the military personnel and most of the civilians are either Americans or moved their families to the states when they joined SGC. So it only staggers about six people. Seven if you're in the mix?” 

Rush shook his head. “No. I arranged for gifts and cards the last time we briefed Homeworld Command and my family still celebrates New Year more than Christmas.”

“You managed to send out cards and do your shopping in the two hours down time we had during the last report?” Young had barely managed to review his mail.

“Amazon.” Rush told him. “Aging aunties get fruit baskets, younger cousins would just as soon have a gift certificate to pick their own present anyway, and the older ones get a decent whiskey. Mail merge the cards and hand them to the PA who looks after our mail to post. Nothing to it.”

Dragging them back to the subject, Camile put in, “So unless I keep the use of the stones down to an hour a piece, some folks are going to miss Christmas.”

“Swapping out bodies multiple times in a shift is a lot to ask the folks on Earth.” Young pointed out. “Realistically I don't think you can schedule in less than two hour blocks. Ask for volunteers to see who's willing to make their visit before or after the holiday. Offer them longer blocks of time. If that doesn't work, we'll do it by lottery.”

This decision proved to be a very bad call as Camile proceeded to send everyone who disagreed with the policy to Young. 

And they all had very good reasons. 

“My Mom's going to be by herself at Christmas for the first time. She's gotten depressed at the holiday ever year since my Dad left. And that will be terrible for her health.” Eli had hunted him down to make his case. “I _have_ to at least talk to her that day.”

“Eli, everyone has a good reason why they need to see their family at Christmas.” Young explained. A little more patiently than he had to some of the rest of the science team. The boy was young and it was his first Christmas away from home. “I'm not going to judge who's reasons are the most pressing. If you can't talk people into volunteering to go a different day you'll just have to take your chances with the lottery.”

“Didn't have a lot of luck with that the last time around.” Eli pointed out. 

 

Meanwhile Greer and Lt. Scott cornered Rush in the Control Room to make their own pitch. “Some of the crew have been really homesick what with the holidays coming and all.” Scott started out with.

“And by some of the crew you mean Chloe?” Rush eyed him.

“Yeah, but there are others, too.” Scott looked sheepish. “Anyway she and a couple of other people were talking in the mess about childhood Christmases. Sledding and cocoa and snow and all. The Colonel even joined in. Apparently he played hockey...”

“Fascinating, I'm sure, but why are you interrupting my work for childhood reminisces?” Rush asked.

“Cause we can control the ship's environment, right?” Greer got to the point. “Can you make one part of the ship different from others?”

“The ship has partitions set up within the environmental systems that allows for different settings, yes. Again why?”

“Well, we had this idea of a way to jazz up the party.” Scott told him. He went on to explain.

By the time he was done, Rush had become interested. He pulled up some schematics of the ship. “This empty area just off from the inhabited area could be segregated off. It's not too far from the mess where I assume the party is being held.”

“Yeah, that'd be perfect.” Scott grinned.

“You're talking about a lot of work. For a start you'll need some kind of delivery system.” Rush pointed out.

“Figured we could borrow some of the sprinkler systems from hydroponics.” Greer said.

Rush nodded. “That would work if you set the spray fine enough. You could link here to the water lines. It would be easy enough to activate them. There aren't any drains though. You'll have to clean  
up by hand.”

“Little shovel and mop work. Not a problem.” Greer shrugged.

“And you'll need a base.” Rush went on.

“There are all those empty packing crates.” Scot suggested.

“Those won't bear the weight.” Rush started to do some calculations. “Although if you made a framework using that metal shelfing in the storage area and then laid the wood over it, that should give you a sturdy enough base and enough of an angle to give you the momentum you want.”

As Rush scribbled, Greer gave Scott a thumbs up behind the scientist's back.

 

This Christmas party of Chloe's was turning into a major pain from Young's perspective. Yes it did seem to be improving morale, but in the process they were losing a whole lot of man hours to it that they could ill afford. Even Rush had taken on some mystery project that left him spending only eight hours a day on his usual tasks.

At least Young hoped Rush's absence from the Control Room were related to the Christmas party. God only knew what else the man might be getting up to. Still he could hardly complain that Rush was only working his assigned shifts. Well, he could, but when he had Camile had told him pointedly that the down time would be good for Rush and given Young some psychological double talk which he was pretty sure translated to 'quit your bitchin'.

So Young told himself firmly that in order to obtain trust you had to be willing to trust and besides Lt. Scott seemed to have some idea of what Rush was up to, which meant whatever it was probably would not get too out of hand. Not that he had time to investigage what with having to field all of the other requests that were coming up as part of this party.

Starting with Eli.

“Okay so this is suppose to be a Christmas party, right? So it should have presents.” Eli cornered him to make his pitch the day after they had first talked.

“Nice idea. Where do you propose to get them?” Young asked patiently.

“Well, I figured we could have a Santa Auction. We come up with as many gifts as there are crew members and then have a game, I was thinking a trivia contest maybe, whereby everyone will get a turn to pick one.” Eli explained. “As for the presents themselves, people can volunteer services and things. TJ has offered to donate a couple of massages. And one of the biologist is making up some scented soaps. Stuff like that. And,”

Here Eli paused, “If you okayed it, we could throw in some other stuff like a vacation day, or maybe some extra rations. I thought we could also include a couple of uses of the communication stones for visits home.”

Rush was definitely a bad influence on this boy. “Eli, I can't let you rig this auction to get yourself on the short list to use the stones.”

“I wouldn't do that.” Eli protested. “It's just the way these things usually work, you get a chance to pick what you want most. I don't think there's anybody on the ship that wants to go home for a visit more than I do.”

“Don't be too sure.” Young told him. “Okay, two of the uses of the stones on Christmas will go into this exchange of yours. But you have to make sure that _everybody_ gets something and all the gifts have some kind of value. You can throw two vacations days and two extra meals in your exchange as well, but you're going to have to come up with the rest of the gifts yourself, and I want them run past both me and Chloe for final approval. Got that?” 

“Great! It'll make the party. Just you see.”

 

A couple of days later Scott and Greer dragged Rush over to look at how their idea was progressing. “The shelving is the problem. It's a pain to disassemble, so we want to make sure we've gotten enough, but don't want to grab more than we need.”

“It's an easy enough calculation. Water weighs a kilo per liter, or close enough for our purposes here. So if we want it about about ten centimeters thick over a surface area of...” Rush scribbled down an equation. 

“Wait. That's algebra.” Greer peered at the calculation. “Algebra has a use? Its not just to torment school kids?”

Rush sighed, “Algebra, in the sense you're using the term -- it also refers to a major branch of mathematics -- is used whenever you are solving for a variable or need to define a relationship. And my academic career over the last twenty years would have been greatly simplified if secondary schools had bothered to explain that rather than just teaching it as though it were a puzzle.”

“So if you want to know how much weight this will hold you set up the equation...” Greer was still peering at Rush's calculation. “It ain't gonna be strong enough is it?”

“No.” Rush glanced at him in minor surprise. “You're going to need...”

A couple more calculations and Rush came up with. “To be on the safe side you're going to want to increase the number of supports by 25%.”

Greer nodded. “I'll round up a couple more guys to lend a hand. With four of us we ought to be able to get this put together by the time you're ready to drop the temperatures.”

“Not and get the sprinkler system hooked up.” Scott pointed out.

“I could do the plumbing while you round up the supplies.” Rush offered. 

“Uhn, have you ever done plumbing, Dr. Rush?” Scott asked dubiously.

“Worked as a plumber's helper to earn money for Uni, lad. I'm probably better at it that you are.” Rush told him tartly.

“That wouldn't take much.” Greer put in. “Like most officers he's crap at anything that gets his hands dirty.” 

“Hey, at least I can do algebra.” Scott grinned as he said it.

“I kicked butt at algebra.” Greer told him. “Just never knew that there was any use for the stuff.” 

 

After Becker came to him the following day for approval for the 'menu' for the party, Young decided he had better get a much firmer grasp on just what was going on for this thing and called a meeting of the planning committee.

Which turned out to be: Chloe, Camile, Eli, TJ, Lisa Park, Lt. Scott, Greer of all people, Cpl. Barnes, Becker, and Mr Brody. “How many more people have you roped in on this?” Young commented sourly.

“Well, Dr. Rush is providing technical advise.” Scott put in. “Riley's making some stuff. And there's a half dozen more who are helping with set up, but not planning.”

“No wonder work is falling behind.” Young sighed. “All right, what have you got?”

“We've figured out if we slice some of the root vegetables really thin and bake them hot enough, we can turn them into chips without using any fat.” Becker told him. “Along with that as a snack, I'm making up some vegetable patties and I figured we might as well serve up the remaining greens. They're going to need to be eaten right away anyway so we should use them up.

“We've also been experimenting with a couple of punches. One is just fruit and vegetable juices, but it's sweet and we can serve it hot or cold. The other takes just a little of the protein powder added to the Eden Bark tea making something that can kind of pass for eggnog. Both of them will mix with the liquor pretty good.”

“Liquor? Where did we get liquor?” Young asked. “And shouldn't TJ keep it for medicinal purposes.”

“I, uh, kind of built a still.” Brody admitted.

“He's mainly using scraps from the kitchen for supplies, Colonel.” Becker cut in quickly. “It's stuff that would go for compost if he didn't use it.”

“But he's making enough that the infirmary is all ready stocked up.” TJ added. “And a morale boost this time of year _is_ good for everyone's health.”

“Fine.” Young shook his head. “I suppose the only part of this that actually surprises me is that the science team came up with it first.”

Brody smirked. “I'm an engineer, remember. Not only do I know how to build a distilling apparatus, but my moonshine is actually drinkable.

“Although the flavor is still in the development stage.” He admitted.

“Which is why we're making punch.” Becker added.

“But he's contributing six pints to the Santa Auction.” Eli backed them up. “So I've got enough stuff that I've started combining gifts. Everybody was really generous. Even Rush donated three chess lessons or games, recipients choice.”

“Is that a gift by him or for him?” Young had to ask. “Sounds like he's getting a chess partner out of the deal to me.”

Eli shrugged. But Chloe put in. “It's a thoughtful offer.”

“Right.” Young sighed. “Okay, just keep the use of resources down to a reasonable level, people, but I'm not quashing anything I've heard so far.”

A chorus of “Yes, sirs.” and “Thank you, sirs” trailed behind the group as they hurriedly departed before he could change his mind.

 

The day of the party arrived with, to Young's surprise, no major disasters. He assumed they had kept the minor ones from him. Which, as long as they could tell which were which, was just fine with him. He dutifully turned up for the open ceremonies.

Chloe opened with a sweet little speech about how the _meaning_ of Christmas was what mattered, not the celebration. Thanked everyone who had helped. Then turned the floor over to Eli, who explained his Santa Auction.

“Everybody pick three things that you would like. Label them one, two and three. Then on the ones that have more than one 'one' bid, we'll have a trivia contest to see who gets it. Losers will then bump their number two choice to number one and so on until everybody has a gift. We'll be running the contest over the course of the party, so keep track of what number your gift is to know when to participate.”

After Eli finished, Scott and Greer took over. “We put together some entertainment. Bring some extra layers of clothing and follow the lights to our Winter Wonderland.”

The lights in the corridors leading out of the inhabited area had been dimmed, with only emergency lights still operating. Scott and Greer had used scraps of materials to cover these so that many of them now appeared red or green. The temperatures fell rapidly as they approached the doors that formed the usual barrier for the inhabited part of the ship.

The doors stood open. Drifting through them... 

“Is that _snow_?” Chloe exclaimed breathlessly.

Young got the first tour along with Chloe and Lisa Park. “There's a snow slide.” Greer pointed out with pride.

“Snow board or tobaggon your choice.” Scott put in. “Riley helped us make up a bunch from the packing crates. And just around the corner we've set up an ice rink. Riley even managed to come up with wooden blades to attach to your boots so you can actually skate.” 

Chloe squealed and hugged Scott. Young congratulated Greer. “This is a great piece of work. How did you manage to produce snow?”

“Hooked up the sprinkling system and set it to mist. Then Dr. Rush dropped the temperature down to the point that the mist froze in the air. After that it just took some shoveling to make sure it was piled where we wanted it.” Greer grinned. “Have fun, sir.”

Young did just that. He bid on a gift. Grabbed some of the 'chips' to nibble on and his coat. Then he went back and tried a run down the slide.

After that he took a few spins around the ice before ceding it to the young members of the crew. He headed back to the mess hall, where people were milling about with drinks and nibbling. Rush apparently had also taken advantage of the sledding. He had on the military jacket he wore to go planetside and his trousers were wet with melted snow.

He was also drinking some of the Non-nog. “That any good?” Young asked.

“As long as you don't think of it as eggnog it's surprisingly passable.” Rush responded. “The other ingredients more or less kill the flavor of the alcohol.”

They did. And the Ebark tea gave it an almost seasonal flavor.

Since Rush was lingering over his drink, Young continued the conversation. “Scott and Greer said that you helped them put together the 'winter wonderland'. Thanks. It really made the party.”

“Your lads came up with the idea and did the heavy lifting. I just did the math.” Rush shrugged.

“And designed it so it wouldn't collapse under its own weight.” Young grinned. “Greer was actually impressed.”

“Yes.” Rush considered. “You know. Colonel, Sgt. Greer is actually quite bright. With a little training he could easily handle more technical tasks about ship.”

“If you're going to start poaching my people, I'm going to insist that the scientists learn some basic military skills. At least enough to help defend the ship.” Young told him. “Which would probably be a good idea in any event. No telling what we're going to run into next.

“We can talk about it at our next meeting with Camile. I intend to enjoy this party.” Young held up the tile that represented his gift. “And I got three games of chess as my present in the Santa auction. I”m claiming one now.”

Rush waved him toward a corner of the mess. “Board's set up. Just don't expect me to go easy on you.”

“Don't be so cocky. I might just surprise you.” Young grinned.

“You frequently do.” Rush grinned back.


End file.
